A venerable British medical journal has been targeted by 500 doctors worldwide over its coverage of the humanitarian crisis caused by the Israel-Palestine conflict. It has been Britain’s most trusted medical journal for almost two hundred years.

The controversy arose
after the Lancet, an internationally renowned publication,
released an article deemed to be deeply critical of Israel’s
conduct in Gaza.

Initially revealed by the Independent, the scandal has rekindled
debate about freedom of speech and the human cost of the
Israel-Palestine conflict.

One of the world’s oldest and most well-respected medical
journals, the Lancet is viewed by many medical professionals as a
go-to medical journal.

However, it has come under intense fire in recent months, with
critics warning its platform was misused in a highly
irresponsible manner last summer for “political
purposes.”

In July 2014, a group of irate doctors, led by Professor Sir Mark
Pepys of University College London, signed and submitted a
written complaint to the board of the journal’s publishing
company Reed Elsevier.

The open letter was signed by 24 medical professionals and
scientists from London to Genoa who cited the humanitarian crisis
they witnessed in Gaza.

Its content proved highly offensive to doctors worldwide,
however, who wrote to Reed Elsevier demanding that the Lancet
retract it. They also called for the journal to apologize for
publishing the letter, and for Reed Elsevier to ensure “any
further malpractice” at the Lancet is prevented.

The protesting doctors, five of whom are Nobel laureates, billed
themselves as “concerned academics.” They accused the
Lancet of publishing “stereotypical extremist hate
propaganda.”

They also said Reed Elsevier were profiting from “the
publication of dishonest and malicious material that incites
hatred and violence.”

While the letter included eyewitness accounts of the humanitarian
and medical crises that unfolded during Israel’s Operation
Protective Edge last summer, it did not reference an
acknowledgement of Hamas’ role in the hostilities.

The doctors, who complained to Reed Elsevier, threatened to
boycott the Lancet unless staff at the publishing company enforce
“appropriate ethical standards of editorship” on the
journal.

Observers argue the scandal poses the most significant threat to
the Lancet since the publication’s campaigning editor, Thomas
Wakley, was swamped with a slew of lawsuits in 1823 for
condemning the nepotistic, inept and self-serving nature of
Britain’s medical establishment.

The Lancet's current editor, Richard Horton, has presided over
its content since the mid-1990s. Critics say he has molded the
journal into a widely accepted beacon for health in a world
addled with crisis, violence and unrest.

Under his guidance, the journal has cultivated an alliance with
academics in the West Bank in a bid to increase transparency
regarding the health issues Palestinians face.

Controversy relating to the Lancet’s open letter has sparked a
counter-campaign in support of both Horton and the journal called
Hands Off the Lancet. The campaign, led by Professor
Graham Watt of the University of Glasgow, is supported by 300
doctors.

It told the Independent Horton is a prolific leader in the field
of global health and that politics is innately connected to
health and is therefore a “legitimate subject for
commentary.”

The campaign also dismissed accusations of “extremist hate
propaganda” as unhelpful and hyperbolic. It said the attempt to force the
journal to withdraw the open letter published in July 2014 is but
the latest in a long line of maneuvers to silence media coverage
of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The Lancet’s global
advisory board, which consists of 19 professors, wrote directly
to Reed Elsevier on Wednesday to offer its unwavering support for
Horton.

Fiona Godlee, editor in chief at the British Medical Journal,
told the Independent the publication has also been the focus of
similar attacks over its coverage of the Israel-Palestine
conflict.

“Health is a deeply political issue. There is a long history,
when Israel/Palestine gets discussed, of the medium being
attacked. I don’t think that the Lancet should retract the open
letter,” she said.

The open letter denounced Israel’s aggression against Gaza, and
called upon medical professionals worldwide to speak out against
Israeli violence and oppression.

It dismissed Israel’s so-called “defensive aggression”
as perverse propaganda that attempts to legitimize the creation
of “an emergency to masquerade a massacre.”

The letter described the Israel Defense Force’s string of
military attacks on Gaza in recent years as “a ruthless
assault of unlimited duration, extent, and intensity.”

It also expressed disgust at Israel’s military onslaught against
Gazans under the “guise of punishing terrorists.”

It said the burden of military attacks on Gaza is generally born
by women and children under the “unacceptable pretext” of Israel
wiping out resistance to the siege it imposes on the coastal
strip.

Specifically referencing Israel’s military assault on Gaza last
summer, the letter insisted “the massacre in Gaza spares no
one.” Its victims include “the disabled and sick in
hospitals, children playing on the beach or on the roof top, with
a large majority of non-combatants,” the letter said.

The open letter’s signatories stressed the Israeli
administration’s conduct in Gaza was an insult to their humanity,
dignity, and intelligence. They denounced what they described as
a “myth” propagated by Israel that its military
aggression is conducted in a humanitarian manner.